Wonderful News!The Gyalwang Karmapa will be giving a teaching on the Four Dharmas of Gampopa and bestowing the Akshobhya empowerment and teaching on April 11-12 in Queens, New York City.

Limited tickets will be released at 10am, on Monday, March 2, 2015.

The practice of Akshobhya is especially effective for the two-fold purification of the non-virtue of killing, and the disturbing emotion of anger. The Karmapa strongly encourages the practice of Akshobhya as a means to purify negative thoughts and actions rampant in the present age of degeneration. Purification of the Non-Virtue of Killing; rapid advancement of technology has led to unprecedented loss of lives – whether through animal husbandry or war and conflict. As a result, the vast accumulation of negative karma is also unparalleled. Buddha Akshobhya’s immense power of purification can remedy the non-virtue of killing.Purification of the Disturbing Emotion of Anger; one of the five Dhy…

His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa has graciously agreed to perform Long-Life Empowerment ceremony as requested by Karmapa Service Society in Queens. The ceremony will be performed in Elite Palace on Monday, April 13, 2015. The tickets will be available at our office on Sunday and Satuday, from 9am-4pm. For more detail contact us on: 917-294-2636 / 646-671-0041 718-708-1730 / 347-324-7765

The main hall at the university has been set up with a richly carved throne placed before a curtained stage, its front edge lined with colorful flowering plants. Above were hung a lovely thangka of the Buddha, flanked by a painting of Asanga and another of Nagarjuna, representing the two main lineages of philosophy that are studied by the Buddhist schools in Tibet. In the late morning, as people stood on either side of the aisle, holding their white and yellow katas, the Gyalwang Karmapa walked down the center and took his seat to receive katas from a long line of professors, teachers, and staff. In a departure from custom, the Karmapa himself accepted the scarves, leaning over the front of the throne to make a close connection with each person. This sense of warmth and intimacy, as if talking to family members, set the tone for the Karmapa’s talk that followed. After a welcome speech by the Director of the University, Lobsang Norbu Shastri, the Karmapa b…

As dawn broke in Sarnath on 27 February, the skies opened and an auspicious light rain began to shower, several peals of thunder ruffling the early morning stillness. By 9am the skies had cleared and the sun shone brightly down on the crowd gathered in the lush gardens of the Vajra Vidya Institute, eagerly waiting to enter the shrine hall. Although he had not planned to teach in Sarnath, the previous evening the Gyalwang Karmapa had spontaneously announced he would give a talk the following morning. This came as a surprise gift for the large, international group gathered at Vajra Vidya Institute for the annual two-week teaching seminar with Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, many of the Gyalwang Karmapa’s own students and devotees among them. The Karmapa began by joking with the gathering that since he had spoken so much and given so many teachings already this year, he felt he hadn’t much left to say. Nonetheless, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and t…

His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, will soon be embarking on a limited US tour that will see him visiting at several universities, including California’s Stanford University. This will be His Holiness’s third visit to the States. According to a source involved with the planning of the tour, an East Coast leg with stops in the New York and Boston areas is confirmed, with details forthcoming. We will share all such details when they become available. The Karmapa’s talk at Stanford will take place on March 17, 2015 and be called “Caring Connections: Compassion, Technology and the Environment.” Click here for more details and to order tickets. http://www.lionsroar.com/karmapa-us-tour-begin-soon-stanford-tickets-available-now/

February 26, 2015 – Vajra Vidya, Sarnath The first month of the Tibetan New Year is called the Month of Miracles since the Buddha demonstrated different miracles each day for fifteen days. It is said that during this month, the effect of practice is multiplied one hundred thousand times. February 26th is the eighth day of this first month; in general, the eighth day of any month is the one for engaging in the practice of the Medicine Buddha. In this way the Gyalwang Karmapa chose an especially propitious time to perform a long-life ceremony for his teacher, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. The evening before, the Karmapa could be seen roaming the shrine hall as he directed a crew of monks to transform the main altar and area around it. A large and heavy throne along with its tall table was moved from one side to another and then back again while onlookers smiled, remembering how Marpa put Milarepa through building up and taking down the many towers. The central focus unfurled beneath the cent…

22 February 2015Vajra Vidya, Sarnath On 19 February the Gyalwang Karmapa enjoyed a low-key Losar or Tibetan New Year celebration in the sacred place of Bodhgaya. He began the Year of the Wood Sheep with a morning puja, individually blessing all those in attendance, before he joined around 150 close disciples, friends, and locals for a grand Losar lunch offered by Tsurphu Labrang. After spending the first day of the New Year in the place where the Buddha attained ultimate awakening, on 20 February, the second day of the new year, the Karmapa followed in the Buddha’s own footsteps after enlightenment and journeyed west to Sarnath, to the place where the Buddha offered a Dharma teaching to his first five disciples and thus turned the wheel of Dharma for the very first time. The Karmapa set off from Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya in the early afternoon and finally reached Vajra Vidya Monastery in Sarnath just as the sun slowly dipped into the horizon, its last rays striking off the curved gold…

The 33rd Kagyu Monlam will be held during the first Tibetan month, the “Month of Miracles,” of the Fire Monkey year, February 2016, in Bodhgaya, India. The Gyalwang Karmapa will teach the chapter on mandala offerings from The Torch of True Meaning on February 12 and 13 as well as on the Kadampa master Potowa’s Long Soliloquy during the actual Monlam. On February 14, there will be a ceremony to commemorate the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa. The main Kagyu Monlam will be held for seven days from February 16 to 22. There will also be an Ocean of Kagyu Songs ganachakra offering for those who have completed one hundred thousand repetitions of all four special preliminaries. The Monlam will conclude with the Marme Monlam on February 23. For details, see the schedule below.

Virtue in the BeginningTeachings on The Torch of True MeaningDates: February 12-13, 2016 Location: Monlam Pavilion I 8:00–9:00 am Teachings on mandala offerings from The Torch of True Meaning 9:00–9:3…

The stupa is peaceful on this clear midmorning. Light falls through the Bodhi Tree, glancing off its shiny leaves and weaving its way through the spread of the ancient branches. Beneath its canopy Thai pilgrims, all dressed in white, follow ocher-robed monks around the stupa, the call and response of their chanting reverberating off the carved stone walls. A few seasoned pilgrims have gathered along the path, having noticed that a red carpet has been laid from the main gate, its triple arch covered in rose buds, down the wide flight of steps, along the marble path and into the temple; another red carpet circles the entire inner circumambulation path; and on the far side, the low stone lotus flowers marking the path of the Buddha have been overlaid with a thirty-foot strip of maroon silk, embroidered in a long row of gold lotuses. Slightly after ten, the Gyalwang Karmapa appears at the head of the sacred precinct’s stairs and walks down the red carpet into the main temp…